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Policies

Date posted:

Confidentiality policy

The following sets out our general position on matters that are brought to Leaders in the Church, which are intended to be "confidential" in nature. This is not intended to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject but simply an outline of our general policy.

a) Wherever confidentiality is agreed, regarding personal issues, in the context of counselling and general pastoral work, the content of conversations is kept confidential. We would not disclose any such details without the permission of the individual concerned to any other person, except where not to disclose such information would be illegal (the most obvious example being in cases of child abuse). Where an ongoing counselling relationship is involved, other Leaders and the person's Group Leader would be aware that counsel was being given, but would be unaware of the content of such conversations.

b) Where the Elders are told of matters relating to the Church, other leaders, or problems (whether real or perceived), these are treated as confidential to the Leadership team, where appropriate. In the event of people being critical of others, we would have expected them to have followed the clear teaching of Jesus regarding this (Matt 18:15-17), and we could not therefore regard these conversations to be confidential, except where our advice has been sought regarding how to correctly handle a specific situation.

c) Where matters are shared with Leaders an undertaking of maintaining strict confidentiality should not be given, until at least the nature of what is to be shared is known. Where sin requiring Church discipline is concerned, or matters that may require Biblical or legal action on behalf of the Church is shared, confidentiality will always mean “confidentiality within the Leadership Team” and will be shared with other Leaders on a “need to know” basis.

d) Where individuals share with Leaders situations that are confidential, and then themselves compromise our position, by making the situation known freely to others, we would not feel bound to such an agreement.

Protection of children

The safety of your child is of paramount importance to us and all of our adult workers have undergone CCPAS criminal record disclosure checks and comply with the National Elim Church Safe From Harm Policy. A copy of this can be obtained from our Children's Minister, Jean Ranson, on request by phoning the church office.